Medicine promises to become the biggest vertical market for the use of VR.  Recent research has demonstrated that VR is changing healthcare outcomes by structuring it—by augmenting it—by replacing it. Dr. Durnell discusses how advances in virtual reality are changing patient results.

The goal of this course is to prepare students to understand new technologies, the effect they can have on behavioral change and the potential for impacting humanitarian relief, civic engagement, social infrastructures and therapeutic innovations. This course will strive to provide current information, varying perspectives and will be practical and informed by theory and research. Every week students will be introduced to a different technology, technological application or technology solution, such as AI, AR, VR, robotics and technology-driven healthcare.

Speaking at APA on In Group/ Out group Bias and how virtual reality (VR) can bring insight into this form of favoritism toward one's own group or derogation of another group. An in-group is a group of people who identify with each other based on a variety of factors including gender, race, religion, or geography. The tendency to distinguish between in-group and out-group members has moral implications.

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What are the implications of autonomy?   At the Hamlyn symposium we discussed how medical robot autonomy may result in situations where the human operator may no longer mitigate risks.  There exists a shift in responsibility during robotic surgery--who becomes responsible for the outcome during robotic surgery?   What is the criteria for a surgeon's responsibility--control, regulation, intervention and/or observation?   Is the robot responsible?  Perhaps only if the robot is an agent.  What about the responsibility of the developer or manufacturer of the robot--collective responsibility?